The present invention pertains to processes and apparatus for making garments, and more particularly to processes and apparatus for making prefastened and refastenable pants.
Prefastened and refastenable pants can be employed for many uses such as disposable absorbent garments. Examples of disposable absorbent garments include diapers, training pants or swim pants, feminine care products, adult incontinence products, or the like. The typical disposable absorbent garment is formed as a composite structure including an absorbent assembly disposed between a liquid permeable bodyside liner and a liquid impermeable outer cover. These components can be combined with other materials and features such as elastic materials and containment structures to form a product that is specifically suited to its intended purposes.
Prefastened and refastenable disposable absorbent garments can provide advantages over either conventional two-dimensional or three-dimensional products. Two-dimensional products are generally flat and provided in an unfastened configuration, but include fasteners to secure the product about the wearer. Three-dimensional products, in contrast, have closed sides so that the product has a unitary waist opening and two leg openings.
Prefastened and refastenable products can be applied and/or removed either like a conventional diaper or like a conventional training pant. For use as training pants, for example, there may be times when it would be useful to apply the product like a diaper. For instance, it might be more convenient to apply the product like a diaper when there is a desire not to remove the child's shoes. Because it is difficult to know when a particular mode of applying the garment will be needed, it is beneficial to have a garment that is adaptable to being used either as a diaper or as a pant. This is preferable to keeping both types of garments available. A product that can be applied like either a diaper or a pant permits the interior of the product to be easily checked without having to pull the product downward.
Prefastened and refastenable garments present new challenges for high speed manufacturing. The products must incorporate refastenable fasteners that are properly aligned and engaged. Improperly attached or aligned fasteners can lead to many product deficiencies, including machine waste and/or delay, improper fit, fastener delamination during use, fastener disengagement during use, skin irritation, or the like. Moreover, the manufacturing process should desirably be capable of making pants that provide proper fit in the waist and hip regions.
Thus, what is lacking and needed in the art are processes and apparatus for making prefastened disposable absorbent garments with refastenable fasteners, which processes and apparatus permit proper alignment of the fasteners while also yielding a product with desirable fit properties in the waist and hip regions.